Vaccines threaten up to 44,000 US soldiers
Pastor Dale Morgan
Vaccines threaten up to 44,000 US soldiers*
'This really is like Russian roulette. Spin the chamber and take your shot'
Posted: October 31, 2007
A U.S. soldier in Iraq is being punished for refusing an anthrax vaccine
that has a questionable safety record and apparently will be drummed out
of the service.
But such punishments may be of no avail to the military; the word
already is out in a government report that up to an estimated 44,000
service members could end up with "severe adverse events (including)
disability or death" from such mandatory medicines.
The recent case involves Pfc. Leif Hamre, 22, who reports he's been
subjected to threats and intimidation after refusing to take the
controversial anthrax vaccine and was given a variety of punishments,
including 18-hour work days.
Hamre reports he was given an ultimatum in June to take the vaccine or
be punished but couldn't accept the medication, especially after he
discovered the military wasn't even handling the vaccines under the
rules for storing it at the correct temperature.
In an open letter to friends and family members, he said, "The tactics
they have used to coerce me into taking the shot are unregulated,
unscrupulous and downright un-American."
He reported he then was given an Article 15 – a non-judicial punishment
in the military – and his mother reported he was taken off missions,
assigned extra duty and had his pay scale lowered.
The controversial shots first were mandated for U.S. military troops
heading to the Middle East for the Gulf War in 1991, then required in
the late 1990s and again for the Iraq War in 2003.
But the vaccine has been linked by investigative journalist Gary
Matsumoto in his book, "Vaccine-A," to the Gulf War Syndrome, and a
recent report from the General Accounting Office even confirmed that
tens of thousands of soldiers are expected to suffer significant health
threats from the mandatory vaccinations.
The GAO report confirms that about 2.2 million members of the military
service get at least one mandatory immunization annually, including
those for anthrax.
"No immunization is completely safe," the reported explained. "Like all
individuals, servicemembers may experience side-effects as a result of
their immunizations, known as adverse events. Most adverse events
consist of relatively mild reactions, such as swelling near the site of
the immunizations."
The report noted that a "small number" of people may experience more
severe reactions. "Some servicemembers who received these vaccines
experienced severe reactions such as migraines, heart problems, and the
onset of disease including diabetes and multiple sclerosis."
The military suspended the use of the anthrax vaccine in October 2004 in
response to a court order revealing concerns over the process through
which it was approved for use on the military, but that order expired in
October 2006 and the mandatory shots were resumed within a few months,
the report noted.
As part of discussing the military's documentation of its anthrax
vaccine program and the Vaccine Healthcare Centers Network established
by the Department of Defense to monitor such problems, and "meet the
health care needs of servicemembers receiving mandatory immunizations,"
the GAO report said officials with the VHC Network and the Centers for
Disease Control "estimate that between 1 and 2 percent of immunized
individuals may experience severe adverse events, which could result in
disability or death."
"Some of these events may occur coincidentally following immunization,
while others may truly be caused by immunization," the GAO said.
Marguerite Armistead, of the organization Protecting Our Guardians, said
that the potential number of soldiers lost to the military from an
inoculation is huge.
"In public medicine, if someone is allergic and shows a
contraindication, they are never ever forced to take that medication –
it's written in red on their medical file – unless it's a life or death
situation and that medication is the only one that can save them," she said.
"In this military program, we have a product that has led to numerous
fatalities, numerous adverse reactions, and yet soldiers are told you
won't be deployable if you don't take this," she said.
"This really is like Russian roulette. Put three bullets in, spin the
chamber and take your shot," she said.
She said various federal reports document 44 deaths from the
inoculations, and thousands of adverse reactions already, many of them
involving auto-immune diseases or lesions on the brain.
Matsumoto, a New York-based war correspondent who won 10 journalism
awards during his years working for NBC and Fox News Channel, in 1998
drew a connection between the vaccine and the Gulf War Syndrome. His
book describes several cases, including an Army sergeant whose skin
became so diseased that doctors, in a desperate attempt to cure him,
removed every square inch of skin from his body. Then there was the
Green Beret colonel who suffered walking blackouts that left him unable
to find his way home, and the man whose brain literally shrank until he
could no longer write his name or walk straight.
Hamre's parents have told Protecting Our Guardians that their son has
reported he is expected to be leaving Baghdad on Nov. 17, and apparently
is returning to a base in Alaska.
"He told us that a captain from another base refused the vaccine but he
doesn't know the details of that situation. He got word about that from
his old roommate who was working at that base …. That roommate now is
back where Leif is located and it sounded like there may have been
others who refused as well. Leif's commander was angry that that person
shared the information with Leif and claimed it was over and now he was
causing problems to bring it up again," they wrote the organization.
"He continues to work longer hours than the rest of the guys and has
brought it up with the commander and is told 'you don't have it that
bad.' I guess by keeping busy the time may go by faster. Anyway, Leif is
glad to have a date set to start the process of leaving the war. He
isn't sure about the discharge, money he was told he would receive and
the bonus for serving in Iraq…" they wrote.
The vaccine BioThrax, by BioPort – now called Emergent Biosolutions – is
the only FDA-licensed vaccine for anthrax in the U.S. and the Pentagon
repeatedly has affirmed its safety.
"The vaccine is safe and effective," confirmed former Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder.
Still, the DOD has a number of studies evaluating its performance, and
even BioPort's insurance company, Evanston Insurance, is questioning the
safety of the product.
According to a report on Raw Story, the insurance company sued BioPort
alleging "material misrepresentations" by the pharmaceutical company
about "incidents, conditions, circumstances, defects, or suspected
defects" in the vaccine.
"I believe as an American soldier you are expected to follow orders and
put yourself in harm's way but unnecessary safety risks should not be
part of the accepted risks one is asked to face," Hamre said. "We are
being forced to accept chemicals into our already weary bodies that have
caused the suffering of thousands of individuals; of course those people
are easily dismissed by the government because they took a 'safe' drug.
One thing bothers me though; I am an American citizen too, with rights I
thought we were fighting to protect. I have given two years of dedicated
service to the Army, with a clean record and a willingness to sacrifice
for my country and fellow soldiers.
"I am looking forward to much more punishment and probably a discharge
from the Army. I just don't think any of this seems right…" he said.
Hamre's mother told Protecting Our Guardians appeals to various upper
officials in the military and even Congress have been unavailing.
While the GAO report warns of the 1-2 percent rate for "disability or
death" from vaccines, that figure includes all vaccines, including
anthrax, administered to servicemembers by the military. There are about
2.2 million servicemembers who are inoculated every year, which would
suggest significant impacts for 22,000-44,000 servicemembers around the
world.
Armistead noted that the vaccine's own product insert warns of potential
complications with heart problems, Guillain Barre Syndrome, seizures and
paralysis among the nearly four dozen potential adverse reactions.
Dr. Meryl Nass, a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine,
is warning that should there be another anthrax attack, such as the
powder-laden envelopes that arrived at a U.S. Senate office building and
other offices in 2001, an order requiring civilians to be inoculated
also is legally and technically possible.
If a handful of people were to be exposed in an office building in Los
Angeles, for example, the government could issue an order for
vaccination for "everybody in the building, maybe everybody in Los
Angeles. That's what people now are facing," she said.
She also vigorously opposes the anthrax vaccine, and her website
actively is recruiting volunteers to participate as plaintiffs in a new
lawsuit against the government over the restart of the vaccine program.
"I think what's important for the average person to know is that the
military [already] has vaccinated 1.4 million people, and there have
been thousands of people … with adverse reactions," she said.
And she said there undoubtedly are many more cases that have gone
unreported or misdiagnosed as another disease.
There are responses developing, too.
When Maine Army National Guard Capt. Patrick Damon died in 2006 in
Afghanistan from "undetermined causes," his mother, Barbara Damon-Day,
investigated.
She now believes military vaccinations played a role, and the state
Legislature has approved with unanimous support a bill putting in place
various safety measures and reviews.
The plan creates a commission to review various health care practices
including vaccinations for the Maine National Guard.
The aggressive campaign by Merck & Co. and state lawmakers to require
Gardasil, a vaccine that targets the sexually transmitted human
papillomavirus, to be given to all schoolgirls.
At least 11 deaths and about 3,500 adverse reactions already have been
tied to that vaccine.